Verner's Pride eBook

“What now!” cried Mrs. Verner. “Not
a word can anybody say to you lately, Rachel, but
you must begin to cry as if you were heart-broken.
What has come to you, child? Is anything the matter
with you?”

The tears deepened into long sobs of agony, as though
her heart were indeed broken. She held her handkerchief
up to her face, and went sobbing from the room.

Mrs. Verner gazed after her in very astonishment.
“What has taken her? What can it possibly
be?” she uttered. “John, you must
know.”

“I, mother! I declare to you that I know
no more about it than Adam. Rachel must be going
a little crazed.”

CHAPTER II.

TheWillowpond.

Before the sun had well set, the family at Verner’s
Pride were assembling for dinner. Mr. and Mrs.
Verner, and John Massingbird: neither Lionel
Verner nor Frederick Massingbird was present.
The usual custom appeared somewhat reversed on this
evening: while roving John would be just as likely
to absent himself from dinner as not, his brother
and Lionel Verner nearly always appeared at it.
Mr. Verner looked surprised.

“Where are they?” he cried, as he waited
to say grace.

“Mr. Lionel has not come in, sir,” replied
the butler, Tynn, who was husband to the housekeeper.

“And Fred has gone out to keep some engagement
with Sibylla West,” spoke up Mrs. Verner.
“She is going to spend the evening at the Bitterworths,
and Fred promised, I believe, to see her safely thither.
He will take his dinner when he comes in.”

Mr. Verner bent his head, said the grace, and the
dinner began.

Later—­but not much later, for it was scarcely
dark yet—­Rachel Frost was leaving the house
to pay a visit in the adjoining village, Deerham.
Her position may be at once explained. It was
mentioned in the last chapter that Mr. Verner had
had one daughter, who died young. The mother
of Rachel Frost had been this child’s nurse,
Rachel being an infant at the same time, so that the
child, Rachel Verner, and Rachel Frost—­named
after her—­had been what is called foster-sisters.
It had caused Mr. Verner, and his wife also while
she lived, to take an interest in Rachel Frost; it
is very probable that their own child’s death
only made this interest greater. They were sufficiently
wise not to lift the girl palpably out of her proper
sphere; but they paid for a decent education for her
at a day-school, and were personally kind to her.
Rachel—­I was going to say fortunately,
but it may be as just to say unfortunately—­was
one of those who seem to make the best of every trifling
advantage: she had grown, without much effort
of her own, into what might be termed a lady, in appearance,
in manners, and in speech. The second Mrs. Verner
also took an interest in her; and nearly a year before
this period, on Rachel’s eighteenth birthday,
she took her to Verner’s Pride as her own attendant.